Thirty Seconds of Bravery
by sachsie28
Summary: Takes places after season 7. Other than that there isn't much is a summary as i'm just making it up as i go along. :) Chapter Two Updated. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

This isn't where I'm supposed to be.

This isn't where you're supposed to be.

We're supposed to be together, and happy.

But now here I stand, looking down at your grave, with tears in my eyes.

 _Three Months Ago…_

The sun shining through the window is what causes me to wake, groaning I look over at the clock and I see that it's just barely eight in the morning, earlier than I'd like to be up that's for sure. Looking at the body lying next to me I can't help but smile, she's still dead to the world. She'll be like that for probably more than the next few hours having been up most of the night, training, preparing.

Slowly I dislodge her arm from around my waist and wiggle myself out of the bed, careful not to wake her, knowing that if I do it'd be a long day.

"Buffy?" I look as my door opens slightly and Willow peeks her head inside. "You're needed downstairs."

"I'll be right down," I comment smiling as I walk into the bathroom. Things haven't been the same since we sunk Sunnydale into the ground. We ended up in LA for a while with Angel, but for obvious reasons that didn't work out. Our next step was Europe, looking for the Immortal, but let's just say he wasn't exactly what we were looking for. And after five short months we moved back the United States.

And here we are now, Chicago.

Giles told us about a Hellmouth in Cleveland, but something about living over another Hellmouth wasn't something we really wanted to do. However, we heard of some big evil in Chicago, so we came here to help out the locals, and three months later we're still here. I'm starting to think that we might have found another Hellmouth, after all the Watchers Council did make reference to five other Hellmouths besides the one of Sunnydale. Knowing my luck I wouldn't be surprised.

Running my fingers through my hair I work into a messy bun on top of my head. Walking over to the bed I grab the oversized hoddie and pull it over my head. I take one more look at the person asleep in my bed before softly closing the door behind me. As soon as the door closes behind me I look up and see Willow leaning against the wall across from my room. "Good Morning." I comment pulling the hood up over my head, smirking.

"Don't good morning me," she says with a smile. "It's good to see you happy again Buff," she says throwing her arm over my shoulder as we make our way downstairs.

I enter the meeting room and sitting around the table is Xander, Giles, Wood, and Andrew. Yes Andrew. Surprisingly he's been a big asset since everything went down in Sunnydale. He's been working with Giles to learn what it's like to be a Watcher, he's been studying with Willow to learn more about witchcraft and demons, and he's been working with Xander on weapons. He's improving.

"Buffy," Giles greets me as I take a seat next to Xander. When we set up this little group we have going, we decided that it wouldn't be smart to have one person in charge, like in Sunnydale, we decided that the people who have been fighting the forces of darkness the longest should all have a say. Thus the five of us sitting here and the one upstairs make six. "Good Morning," he comments taking a sip of his tea and taking a seat next to Andrew.

"What's the what?" Xander says handing me a cup of coffee from the middle of the table. I wonder who was on the coffee run this morning, because they forgot the donuts.

"I received a call this morning from a contact of mine in the local police department," he says taking another sip of his tea.

"A special friend?" Xander comments and Giles just shoots him a look. "What?"

"She came across something odd on her patrol last night," he says typing on the keyboard in front of him and a picture appeared behind him.

"Is that a statue?" I ask. "It's not too odd, they're all over Chicago."

"It's not just any statue," he comments and after typing on another couple keys a picture appears next to the statue picture. Except this picture is one of an actual person, a person who looks a lot like the statue. "This Becca Johnson, and he body was found last night, turned to stone," he says flipping to the next picture.

"Is that blood?" This time it is Wood who speaks or the first time. "The statue is bleeding?"

"The stone slowly crushed her to death," he comments. "All her internal organs were turned to stone and it killed her from the inside out," he comments clicking some more removing the pictures from the screen.

"What could turn someone to stone?" I ask looking at Willow.

"Gorgons," she comments looking at Giles. "But they're not real."

"Will," Xander says laughing. "A lot of the things we face 'aren't real' until they are."

"But this is a mythical god from ancient Greece," she says looking around the table. "Medusa ring any bells? Well she had two sisters, two immortal sisters, supposedly both with the same stone turning abilities as her."

"Are we dealing with another God, because honestly the last one wasn't that fun," I say remembering Glory.

"Medusa could turn you to stone with just a glance, Echidna could turn you to stone with a touch, but Typhon could turn you to stone with a thought. And the myth is that if all three sisters are together,"

"Let me guess," Xander chimes in cutting Giles off. "End of the world?"

"No exactly," Giles continues.

"What's worse than ending the world?" Andrew speaks for the first time.

"Bringing the Gods down," Giles ends the conversation. A silence fell amongst us. When Glory was here all she cared about was getting home, she didn't care how, and didn't care about what she let loose into this world, so long as she made it home. But for Gods to what to come to earth, I could only imagine what that would mean or the human race. "If the Gods come to the earth, they'd annihilate us all."

"So…end of the world." I look at Xander, and for the first time that morning, I wish I never left my bed.

By noon I'm sitting alone in the training area, just thinking about the last time I took on a god. How I gave up my life to save the lives of my friends, those same friends who ripped me from Heaven because they believed I was in hell. I used to be angry with them for what they did, but now that I think about it, seeing what I have now, I'm glad they did it, I'm glad I've been able to experience what I've experienced.

Standing up I wrap my hands with athletic tape and stand in front of the punching bag. How am I supposed to fight someone who can turn me to stone with just one look? I can't fight with my eyes closed. I punch the bag and the sound of it swinging back and forth fills the training room. All the slayers in training are at lunch so I'm able to be alone, normally we'd be in here with a group of about ten learning survival tactics.

Giles believed it was important, that since we unleashed a bunch of super powered girls on the world, we should be responsible for teaching them about the world that goes bump in the night. Willow of course agreed instantly while Xander and I just rolled our eyes. They always were the nerds of the bunch. So we set up this school, with the money Giles has stashed away, plus we had the help of the Watchers who survived the Watchers Council bombing.

Willow teaches witchcraft with a few wiccans that Giles knows from England who were more than happy to help.

Giles and Dawn teach demonology.

Andrew teaches theater, which I questioned at first, but then realized it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have something that gets everyone's mind of the bad things that are happening.

Xander teaches weapons, because in all honesty when he became a solider on Halloween many moons ago it has defiantly come in handy, plus he seems to enjoy it.

Kennedy, Faith and I teach survival and training. We rotate who teaches them in the training room about fighting and survival tactics and who brings them out at night for patrol. Yesterday was Kennedy's turn in the training room and Faith is the one who took them on patrol, I had the night off. Tonight Kennedy will take them out and after lunch I will attempt to teach them how to survive.

"What are you doing here?" I catch the swinging punching bag; I hadn't even realized I'd still been hitting it, while I look towards the door to see Faith walking towards me.

"Writing a book," I comment un-wrapping my hands. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

She smirks as she approaches me. "How about you take on someone who actually hits back," she's standing right in front of me now.

"Have you talked to Giles?" I ask looking her into the eye. She was asleep when the meeting was held, considering she was the one that was on patrol last night it was decided not to waking her.]

"I have," she says reaching out and grabbing my hips. "You should have woken me up."

"You were on patrol last night," I say wrapping my arms around her neck bringing her body closer. "It was decided by the three of us that the one on patrol the night before isn't to be woken up," I pause and I place a soft kiss on her nose. "If you would have woken me up I would have stabbed you with the knife you sleep with under your pillow," I wink.

"Get a room," we both look over towards the door to see Kennedy walking in with a group of girls. She has a smile on her face as the two of us glare at her.

"I have to go see Xander anyways," Faith says leaning in to my ear and whispering. "You didn't seem to mind when I woke you up the morning before, I believe you words were 'do stop', right?" she kisses my now red cheek as he makes her way out the back way of the training room.

"Willow is looking for you," Kennedy says. "Something about stone, I don't know, I was distracted." She shrugs as she starts wrapping her hands and passing more wrap to the girls. "She's in her office."

"Thanks," I say walking out of the room.

 **Author's Note** : I haven't written a BTVS story in a long time. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

The rain is coming down now, I can feel it as it seeps into my hair making it stick to my face. Everyone else left hours ago, leaving me alone with my thoughts, and with you.

We had so much going for us, everything had changed between us and we were finally beginning to find ourselves.

But then it all happened.

And you were ripped away from me.

…..

 _Three months ago…_

Opening the door to her office I see Willow sitting in front of her computer, a sight that would have been weird to see a little over a year ago. When she started losing herself in magic she drifted further and further away from the things that made her Willow. She was always the one who researching things on the computer while Giles looked in his books and Xander and I went for donuts. It was our thing, our routine.

She looks up from her computer and waves me in, pointing to the chair across from her desk, silently telling me to sit. Naturally I do as I'm told, as if I was back in high school. "I swear it wasn't me Ms. Rosenberg," I say in the most teenagey girl voice I can muster up. She looks up at me and rolls her eyes. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

"I've been research the gorgon sisters," she says typing vigorously on her keyboard.

"And?"

"Of course I started off with Medusa, the most common one, also she was the only one how was mortal." She looks up at me for a second before looking back down at her computer. "They say she was a beautiful woman who caught the eye of a man, Poseidon, and proceeded to be unfaithful on the shrine of the Greek god Athena." She continues scrolling, her eyes darting back and forth reading the passages. "It was Athena who cursed Medusa, turning her hair to snakes, and also making anyone who she gazed upon turn to stone."

"Wait," I stop finally snapping back to realty, it felt like I was just in a history class. "She was mortal?"

"So they say," she comments. "But her sisters were immortal," she continues.

"Does it have a way to kill an immortal God in there," I say pointing to the computer.

"Well," she comments tapping on the keyboard. "The last person to take down Medusa was Perseus, a demigod; he was the son of Zeus."

"Do we have a demigod anywhere, just lying around?" I joke, leaning back in my chair, feeling defeated.

"That isn't the unnerving part Buff," she says gaining my attention again. "These are three gods, who can look like anyone."

"They have snakes for hair," I comment looking at her confused on how no one can notice them walking around.

"Not all the time," she comments. "Over the years, there is myths that say the other two sisters learned to hide their head of snakes, and only have them appear when they needed them too. Now if they bring back Medusa, and teach her how to do that," she pauses. "Buffy she's said to be the prettiest of them all, she'd be able to lure anyone into her trap."

"So the question now is," I pause standing up. "Which one is here and what are her plans to bring her sisters here too." I walk towards the door. "If your see Kennedy before me, no one patrols alone to night, all of us are going out. Look for a spell the might be able to help us repel the stoning," I say opening and leaving her office.

It's been a long time since I've dealt with a god.

Glory.

It took me sacrifices myself in order to stop her.

What will it take this time?

…

"I want you to take a small group out with Spike, Kennedy is taking a small group out with Willow, and I'm going to take a small group out with Xander." I say pulling my shirt down over my stomach. Faith is sitting on the bed, tying her shoes and getting ready for tonight's patrol. "I had Willow talk to Kennedy, it's a short patrol tonight Faith," I cross our room to the night stand where my cross hangs, the same cross that Angel gave me over ten years ago. "We're sweeping the cemeteries and that's it," I look at her. "I mean it."

"I got it B," she says looking up at me. "Who do you want me to take?"

"You're with Ashley, Heather, Julie and Spike. I have Emily, Mary, Anne, and Xander. Kennedy has Jamie, Elaina, Jen and Willow. Three groups of five. We each hit the three major cemeteries, and then we come back. At least until we know more about what we're dealing with."

She comes over to me and places her hands on my arms, steading me. I didn't even realize I was fidgeting. "Buffy," she says my full name, something she rarely if ever does. "We've trained them all well, and we're only sending the ones out that were with us in Sunnydale so they're the ones with the most experience. Everything is going to be fine. Stop worrying. You're reminding me of Giles." She smirks.

"You're right," I nod, not looking her in the eye; she'd know instantly that I was lying. How am I supposed to not worry when I'm sending all these girls out with a god on the loose that could literally turn you to stone with just a thought. "I have to go and see if Willow was able to come up with anything to help with the whole turning to stone thing," I say kissing her softly before leaving her behind.

…

"What am I doing?" Giles is sitting at his desk looking at me over his cup of tea. Okay so I lied to Faith when I said I was going to see if Willow had found anything yet. Truth is, I don't think she has, and I'd be seeing her in a bit when we all go down to the weapons storage area to get stuff before we go on patrol. "I'm sending these girls out, and they could be killed or worse, turned to a stone statue!" I yell.

"Buffy," he says in his calm Giles voice. "You're sending out girls who have already been battle tested. And you're sending them out with your second and third command." His cup tings a little when he sets it down on the plate. "Faith and Kennedy both know what they're doing and they both know how to lead, you don't have anything to worry about, besides the obvious of course."

"I guess," I say looking at the clock behind his desk. "I have to go meet up with everyone, we'll come see you when we get back," I comment turning and leaving him behind.

…..

 _Three months ahead…._

I drop to my knees in the mud and look at your tombstone. Everything changed that night that we went out. And not for the better.

I wish we never went.

I wish we would have stayed home in bed.

At least there we were safe.

At least there we were alive.

What did I do?


End file.
